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2011-09-14T03:34:00.001-07:00

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York Metro CROP Hunger Walk Pictures

2011-04-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

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JC Clifford Hunger Video

2007-03-13T13:13:00.001-07:00

From a Letter from Roger Burtner

2007-03-13T12:21:00.000-07:00

Very kindest greetings to you and to those dear to you!

To set the record straight, I want to emphasize that the launching and the sustaining of The CROP WALK idea was a team effort, and not a solo event!

In the summer of 1970, my first season as Mid-Atlantic (6 states & DC) CWS/CROP Director, I met George Sturgeon at my first sharing with Regional CROP Directors. George, the Director for the Dakotas, suggested that I try a novel fund-raising idea that he heard about from some friends from Canada. It was "The WALK idea". It would be a community witness to a deep concern for hungry people, and significant fund-raising to help them. Besides all that, it would be a parade! And who doesn't like a parade?

I had been a pastor in York, PA, before leaving for our six years of missionary work in Nigeria, Africa, so I first tried the WALK idea in York County. Lutheran Pastor Bill Sowers, and veteran United Methodist Youth Worker, Margaret Horn comprised the totality of the CROP Committee that September day when I offered to them this novel WALK idea. They were both good leaders and organizers. I shall always remember the powerful and immediate response Margaret (who was 70 years young!) made: "Bill, this is a good idea; I'm going to WALK; will you walk with me?"

His was the first of countless affirmations of intent to take significant steps toward helping the less fortunate members of our Human Family. I could never have guessed that a mere six weeks later there would be SIXTEEN HUNDRED WALKERS, doing the fifteen miles from the square in York to Spring Grove. I was jubilant as I went to the Annual gathering of CROP Directors in Elkhart that December. About $ 8,000.00 was then being reported from York County's first CROP WALK!

My amazement continued to grow across the winter. So did my faith in the WALK idea! By March 1971, York County's WALK had yielded $ 22,000.00. So convinced was I, that all I wanted to do was to organize more and more and more CROP WALKS! In 1971 there were 55 CROP WALKS up and down the Susquehanna River Valley, grossing more than a quarter of a million dollars. Mid-Atlantic Region had "topped the nation", becoming the highest income-producing region, a position we held for the next four years.

One wintry night, in Feb. 1972, I was inspired to write the following poem, which spoke of why walking to raise funds meant so much to me. I personally knew many, many of the Hungry Brothers & Sisters by name from our six years of walking with them in Nigeria.

We walk because "they" walk

We walk because "they" walk . . . . . we walk to span the tide,
We walk to bridge the waters that serve too well to just divide,

"Us" from "them" by a chasm deep and wide, in health, education and welfare.
Sick, illiterate, and faring n'er so well, they walk and walk.
If they can; if there's strength for the day
Upon ulcered legs, scratched, scarred and bruised,
They walk to market for a penny's worth of salt,
And home again by the well for water . . . if there be a well . . . or water hole.
They walk, and walk . . . and walk, on calloused feet, on broken calloused feet,
To bush gardens, before the scorching sun even begins his relentless course above them.

They walk to break or till thin poor soils, until the red fire ball lingers in the west.
They walk and so do we, to identify with those who walk, and walk, and walk
On burning sand, thru muddy waters, o're muddy trails, across stony pathways,
To church and school . . . if there be such, to a hospital or dispensary if one can . . .
We walk, because they walk, and walk, to seek wood for the fire, grass for the roof . . . To seek sticks and stalks and mud, to build home and granary.
To carry home the harvest, miles back from the swamp.

They walk, and so do we, to witness to the facts of love we feel,
And help we seek to give, that all might know our Brother walks, and walks . . .
To pay his taxes, to pay his last respects, to visit the sick or flee from foe . . .

He walks to flee the foe; angry nature, or angry men, with heavy heart, and heavy load. He walks, hastening in the dark, trusting that all his loved ones are all accounted for in the night! In flight! . . . and away from home . . . a refugee!

He walks to bread lines . . . if there be . . . to help the dispossessed . . . the refugee.
He walks and so do we . . . we walk to better know and help our Brother,
So that all might know . . .
We walk for the hungry.

Besides Pastor Sowers and Margaret Horn, I would like to mention that many, many dear Friends and Staff Members made our WALKS a success.

Yours, in Our Lord,
Roger Burtner

York Area CROP Hunger Walk

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York Metro CROP Hunger Walk Pictures

JC Clifford Hunger Video

From a Letter from Roger Burtner